July 09, 2010

Tivoli and Catacombs {text by Andrew}

Friday, July 9th

Today we visited an immense villa in the small town of Tivoli outside
Rome: the villa d'Este.

This villa was the brainchild of a Cardinal
d'Este, the son of Lucrezia Borgia, and the grandson of Pope Alexander
VI. Pope Alexander VI was among the most controversial figures in the
most controversial period of the Papacy, and was accused of simony
(granting ecclesiastical honors for secular considerations) and ordering
the execution of political rivals. His daughter Lucrezia (by one of
his many mistresses before becoming Pope) was a pawn (perhaps willingly)
in the political machinations of the Borgia family, and was married
several times under suspicious circumstances as directed by her male
relatives. Ippolito d'Este was the issue of one such union, and attained
the position of Archbishop of Milan and then Cardinal. He had
aspirations of becoming Pope, but they were never fulfilled.

He built a grand villa at the top of a hillside, and acquired a
talented crew of architects, painters, sculptors, and hydraulic
engineers. This team put together an ambitious plan to cover the hill
itself with a garden and a series of 500 fountains, and for around the
last 25 years of the Cardinal's life, work continued on the plan. It
was completed after his death in 1572. To attain the desired effects,
the team had to recover lost techniques from ancient Rome for hydraulic
engineering. The gardens had an enormous influence on European
landscape design over the next centuries.

Here are some more pictures showing the villa, the gardens, and the
fountains.

Hard to believe, today is our
last day in Rome. We went this morning to see the Catacombs, where
500,000 Christians and Jews were buried outside the walls of Rome.
There was an ordnance in effect that nobody could be buried inside the
city, for health reasons. The only exceptions to this rule were burial
of creatures deemed to be divine, mostly including the better class of
emperors -- hence the tombs of Julius and Augustus Caesar and others in
the Forum.

The Catacombs were exactly what we expected, only more so. 20km of
underground passages on four levels excavated from volcanic stone for
the purpose of burying folks. Each corridor had small slats cut into
each side where bodies could be placed; the bodies would then be sealed
in using brick, stone, or marble. Sixteen Popes were buried in the
Catacombs we visited. The Romans knew of the Catacombs, but did not
know that secret Christian meetings were held in the corridors. No photography was allowed inside the catacombs.

We also went to St Paul's basilica, which was a magnificent church
built around 300-400 AD at the location of the death of St Paul. The
magnificent church was destroyed by fire in 1823 after surviving mostly
intact for almost 1500 years. The church was rebuilt according to the
original plan, based on contributions of historically appropriate
materials from a wide range of countries. As you can see from the
pictures below, the church today is beautiful, and the only sign of the
previous destruction is the long row of capitals of the original
columns, lying outside the cloister.

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Tivoli and Catacombs {text by Andrew}

Friday, July 9th

Today we visited an immense villa in the small town of Tivoli outside
Rome: the villa d'Este.

This villa was the brainchild of a Cardinal
d'Este, the son of Lucrezia Borgia, and the grandson of Pope Alexander
VI. Pope Alexander VI was among the most controversial figures in the
most controversial period of the Papacy, and was accused of simony
(granting ecclesiastical honors for secular considerations) and ordering
the execution of political rivals. His daughter Lucrezia (by one of
his many mistresses before becoming Pope) was a pawn (perhaps willingly)
in the political machinations of the Borgia family, and was married
several times under suspicious circumstances as directed by her male
relatives. Ippolito d'Este was the issue of one such union, and attained
the position of Archbishop of Milan and then Cardinal. He had
aspirations of becoming Pope, but they were never fulfilled.

He built a grand villa at the top of a hillside, and acquired a
talented crew of architects, painters, sculptors, and hydraulic
engineers. This team put together an ambitious plan to cover the hill
itself with a garden and a series of 500 fountains, and for around the
last 25 years of the Cardinal's life, work continued on the plan. It
was completed after his death in 1572. To attain the desired effects,
the team had to recover lost techniques from ancient Rome for hydraulic
engineering. The gardens had an enormous influence on European
landscape design over the next centuries.

Here are some more pictures showing the villa, the gardens, and the
fountains.

Hard to believe, today is our
last day in Rome. We went this morning to see the Catacombs, where
500,000 Christians and Jews were buried outside the walls of Rome.
There was an ordnance in effect that nobody could be buried inside the
city, for health reasons. The only exceptions to this rule were burial
of creatures deemed to be divine, mostly including the better class of
emperors -- hence the tombs of Julius and Augustus Caesar and others in
the Forum.

The Catacombs were exactly what we expected, only more so. 20km of
underground passages on four levels excavated from volcanic stone for
the purpose of burying folks. Each corridor had small slats cut into
each side where bodies could be placed; the bodies would then be sealed
in using brick, stone, or marble. Sixteen Popes were buried in the
Catacombs we visited. The Romans knew of the Catacombs, but did not
know that secret Christian meetings were held in the corridors. No photography was allowed inside the catacombs.

We also went to St Paul's basilica, which was a magnificent church
built around 300-400 AD at the location of the death of St Paul. The
magnificent church was destroyed by fire in 1823 after surviving mostly
intact for almost 1500 years. The church was rebuilt according to the
original plan, based on contributions of historically appropriate
materials from a wide range of countries. As you can see from the
pictures below, the church today is beautiful, and the only sign of the
previous destruction is the long row of capitals of the original
columns, lying outside the cloister.